"Huh?"
Natsume let out a soft sound of surprise as his gaze fell on a green Pokémon standing beside Ash.
"A Metapod? Did your Caterpie evolve?"
"Yeah, it evolved during the battle with Team Rocket just now."
Ash froze for a second, then proudly scooped up the Metapod at his feet and presented it to Natsume.
Natsume didn't respond right away. Instead, he frowned slightly and picked up his Rotom Phone, pointing it at Metapod.
[Metapod – Level 6 – Ability: Shed Skin.]
Sure enough, Natsume raised an eyebrow.
If he remembered correctly, Caterpie normally evolves into Metapod at Level 7, then into Butterfree at Level 10.
This Level 6 Metapod was definitely outside the norm—his eyes gleamed with interest.
"System, would this Metapod be considered a special individual?"
[+1.]
Natsume silently stared at the extra Pokédollar now sitting in his system inventory.
"…What's wrong, Natsume? Is there something off with Metapod?"
Ash's pride instantly vanished, replaced by a look of genuine concern when he noticed Natsume's silence after scanning the Pokémon.
"Wait—did it get injured during the battle?"
Misty leaned in, looking concerned as well. Even though she disliked Bug-type Pokémon, she couldn't deny the effort Caterpie had shown earlier.
"…It's nothing."
Natsume scratched his head and turned away, focusing on the combat rule system displayed in his mind.
Ash sighed. Typical Natsume—zoning out again.
"It's getting late. We should make camp for the night," Misty suggested. "We'll probably reach Pewter City by tomorrow."
"Alright!"
The two quickly got to work setting up camp and rolling out their sleeping bags, leaving Natsume standing in place, spaced out.
That's because—the system had just pinged him.
Ding! Battle Rules Module Activated!
SSS-Rank Long-Term Project: Data Collection for Game-Rule Adaptation to Real-World Combat – Now Active!
Daily data collection completed. Scratch Card +1. Next battle cooldown: 23 hours.
A… daily mission?
After reading the system notification, Natsume snapped back to reality.
So this so-called "SSS-Rank Long-Term Project" was essentially asking him to use the battle rule module to simulate combat—either with wild Pokémon or other Trainers. Win or lose, he'd receive a Scratch Card, but he could only use the battle rules once per day.
"System, what are you collecting this data for?"
No answer. As usual.
Natsume shrugged and looked back toward Ash and Misty. They'd already lit a campfire and laid out two sleeping bags—one pink, one blue—with a large empty space in the middle, clearly left for him.
"Natsume, do you need a sleeping bag? I brought a spare just in case!" Ash called out as he noticed Natsume.
"No need."
Natsume waved a hand and tossed a small cube onto the ground.
Pop!
A fully inflated tent instantly appeared in the center of the clearing.
Ash and Misty's eyes sparkled with envy.
"Natsume, do you have another one? That looks awesome!" Ash said, already trying to crawl inside.
Three seconds later, he walked out completely expressionless.
Now even more curious, Misty peeked in herself… and came out with the same blank face after three seconds.
"I'm staying up all night working on a research paper," Natsume said as he ducked into the tent. "Unless it's something important, please don't disturb me."
After he disappeared inside, Misty covered her face with both hands and muttered:
"Who keeps dissection models in the same place where they sleep? That's terrifying. I'd have nightmares for sure."
Ash shivered. "Yeah… I might not be able to sleep tonight…"
Night fell.
The forest was quiet, with only the occasional chirping of insects mixing with the crackling of the campfire—oddly comforting in its own way.
"Pika… Pi…"
Next to the fire, Pikachu was already fast asleep, murmuring dreamily.
Metapod sat silently on a log nearby, gazing up at the sky.
The flickering firelight reflected off its emerald-green shell, and in those small black eyes, one could almost see a longing for the heavens.
Crunch.
Behind them came the sound of soft footsteps—it was Natsume, holding what looked like a small blanket.
"Still a rookie... You can't just leave your Pokémon outside like this."
Looking at the sleeping Pikachu and the silent Metapod, Natsume gently draped the blanket over them.
"Pika…"
Pikachu stirred slightly, tugged the "blanket" closer with a paw, and snuggled deeper into sleep.
Natsume turned to look at Metapod.
Can a Pokémon's strong desire to evolve actually trigger early evolution?
He scribbled the question down in his notebook.
Since the system didn't label this prematurely evolved Metapod as a special case, it likely meant that this phenomenon was real.
And as far as he could recall, there were virtually no published papers on the correlation between evolutionary desire and early evolution.
Natsume, a Pokémon researcher under 20 who had already earned the right to select Professor Oak as his mentor, was the kind of person who would know if something had been studied or not.
This brought to mind Dawn's Piplup, who was able to suppress its evolution.
Natsume's eyes narrowed thoughtfully—he remembered that detail from the Diamond and Pearl anime in his previous life.
If he pursued this line of research… it might just be worth publishing in a specialist journal.
Because if Natsume wanted to realize his ambitious Mecha-Rotom Project, he needed a lab of his own, one where he had complete creative control.
But a "god-tier" lab like that, along with a proper research team, required him to first earn the title of Pokémon Professor.
And to qualify as a professor, one needed two things:
Recommendation from another Pokémon Professor—this, Natsume could ask of Professor Oak.
At least five papers published in specialist journals—so far, only one of Natsume's papers, about Rotom, had made the cut. The rest had been rejected.
"Well… one step at a time."
Yawning, Natsume crawled back into his tent.
The next morning…
"Pika-piiii!!"
Pikachu's panicked shriek rang through the air, filled with such raw terror that Ash bolted upright.
"Pikachu, what's wrong?!"
Ash whipped around to look at his partner—only to pause.
"Wait… who put a blanket over Pikachu?"
…That's not a blanket.
That's a detailed anatomical chart of Pikachu's muscular and skeletal structure.
That's what had terrified Pikachu—a full-face jump scare first thing in the morning.
"…Isn't that from Natsume's tent?" Misty murmured, glancing over.
"Hey! What are you two yelling about so early in the morning? No respect for your elders?" Natsume grumbled, stepping out in blue-and-white striped pajamas.
He blinked at the sight of Pikachu.
"…Ah. Yeah. I guess I might've grabbed the wrong thing in the dark."